Thursday, August 6, 2009

A Casual Drive

On our drive through Rocky Mountain State Park the other morning, I was amazed at the amount of wildlife that we saw. It might be that I have becoming jaded to the wildlife in my home state. I get used to seeing herons, osprey, fox, and raccoons. (wild boar, bald eagles, deer, etc.)

Many of the animals may be common in Colorado, but I hadn't seen them myself before. So for many of you they may be common, but for me it was a thrill.


I have never seen a magpie before. They are a member of the crow family and reputed to be just as intelligent and man are they good looking. I am sure that there are those out there who can share horror stories about these birds as apparently, they are fearless.


Here we see a mule deer, a marmot, and a pika. I never thought I would actually see a pika (not my pic).

I tried to get pictures of some of the more exotic (read "ones I don't often see") species, but I couldn't get them all. I was also amazed at how close I could get to almost all of them. I don't have much zoom on my little point and shoot, so any pictures I get are amazing.



This is a ground squirrel, here is a young elk buck, and of course a chipmunk (not my pic), which we don't have on the Outer Banks.

I took the drive with my father, who is an avid gun hunter. His major trip every year is to go to Wyoming to hunt elk, so seeing so many was a huge thrill for him and got his adrenaline pumping. He can't wait for the season to open now.


Impressive, no? I could have hit them with a rock.

And there was more, all in a short, 2 hour drive around the park.

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